Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight …or the Discovery Channel.

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Unanswered

Sam Uley was on a mission. Something strange was going on and he intended to find out what it was. The council didn't seem too concerned after he told them what he saw at the beach but Sam wasn't buying it. Obviously, they would prefer that she find other friends to fill her time with, Billy Black volunteered to send his son to try and distract her, but beyond that they heard nothing to alarm them. They preferred that he and Jared spend their time helping Paul.

Sam did not agree.

He knew that he was new to this life, to this strange hybrid existence and that the elders were wise, but they had never experienced the transformation and his instincts were screaming at him. He knew the bloodsuckers' scents like the back of his hand; he smelled it everywhere he went beyond the treaty line. He knew what the kids in town smelled like after they had been with them in school. He knew what the old people at the diner smelled like after their appointments to see the doctor. Bella Swan did not smell like that, she did not smell like anything he had ever smelled before. Something was not right with that girl and he was going to figure out what it was.

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As they sat in the quiet theater, awaiting the start of a movie none of them seemed interested in, Bella tried to think over everything that had happened in the last five minutes. But she was having difficulty. The pain was back now. It had dulled throughout the day. Her trick of only using the one hand seemed to work until those punks slammed into her in line. Everything seemed to happen very fast after that.

Edward was instantly supporting her with his arm around her side while he yelled at the boys who had caused the chaos. She couldn't remember what he said, she was overwhelmed by the pain and the butterflies she felt from his holding her so close. She remembered Jasper and Alice stepping in between Edward and the boys and the manager coming over to escort the troublemakers out. That's when she stopped paying attention everyone else because that's when Edward turned to her and looked into her eyes.

His expression was difficult to classify. He was concerned, obviously because of the way she screamed, and he was also angry. But there was something else there in his dark eyes that she could not comprehend. She had never been this close to him before and was amazed that his face was even more perfectly smooth than it was from a distance.

"Bella?" He was anxious.

"I'm fine." She meant it, too, the pain was already starting to numb. "It just caught me off guard, that's all."

He looked absolutely heartbroken.

"I promise, I honestly don't know why I reacted that way. I usually don't scream like a girl." She tried to laugh it off but got the feeling that he wasn't buying it.

Edward, Alice and Jasper had talked about just leaving and forgetting the movie but Bella had been able to talk them into staying. They skipped class to see this movie so why should they return without doing so? Everyone seemed very reluctant to move forward and Bella felt awful about it. She had completely ruined their afternoon.

Now, sitting next to Edward with his sister and brother on the other side of him, something other than her shoulder was bothering Bella. It wasn't something she noticed until she thought back on what happened outside the theater. Of course Edward knew why her shoulder hurt, but Alice and Jasper seemed to know as well. That was surprising.

When they were trying to decide if they should just leave, the three of them started talking as if she wasn't even there. It was almost insulting. Edward seemed to want to leave immediately, 'before anymore damage was done'. He wanted to take her to see his father, the doctor. Alice and Jasper were hesitantly trying to talk him out of it, so low she could only hear that they were speaking, not what they were actually saying. That was when Bella decided to try and play off the pain and request that they stay for the movie and, though they all agreed, nobody seemed excited at the thought.

It just brought back Bella's suspicions about something going on that she wasn't aware of.

The lights began to fade as the previews began. Edward turned to look at her.

"Are you sure you'll be comfortable here?"

"Yes."

"I'm so sorry."

"How is this your fault?" His dark eyes hardened. He must be upset about not stopping them before they slammed into her. Or maybe it had something to do with what she felt he was keeping from her.

"You have no idea," was his only response as he looked away.

His response cemented the suspicions in Bella's mind. Edward was hiding something else.

"Exactly, I have no idea, but you seem to," she accused him, unsure of how he would respond.

He didn't. He turned to stare at the images flickering on the screen in front of him.

"Something is going on here, Edward, something that you're not telling me. Something about me. Don't you think I have a right to know?"

He looked at her again, his expression was pained.

"I do, Bella."

"I'm waiting."

"This just isn't… a good time."

"Then when is a good time?"

He hesitated, "later, I promise."

"I've heard that before," she could feel the tears welling up in her eyes like they always did when she got angry. "I haven't forgotten that you still owe me an explanation for the van incident."

Even though it was dark in the theater, she could see his face very clearly. At first he looked torn again, like he was fighting with himself over how to respond. Then he looked sincere.

"Bella I know that I haven't been the best friend to you in the explanations department, and please believe me when I say that it's not because I don't want you to know or because I think you don't deserve to know. Sometimes, it's just not my secret to tell. Can you understand that?"

She looked at him for a moment before she responded, shaking her head. "I want to believe you, but on both counts, I have been involved. Doesn't that make it my secret, too? I should be let in on my secret."

He looked at her for a long time. Minutes passed, she was sure of it.

"Okay." His tone sounded defeated, which made Bella's heart race. He was going to come clean. "But this really isn't a good time."

She was about to protest when he smiled apologetically. "The movie's starting."

With that, he turned to look at the screen and hardly moved from that position for the next 94 minutes. By the time the film was over, Bella couldn't even remember the title. It was an action movie, that was all she got out of her time there that afternoon. It was loud and there were a lot of explosions.

Everyone seemed less tense when the movie was over. The four of them walked silently out of the building. Because they had seen such an early showing, it was still light out. The difference from the dark theater hurt Bella's eyes. When they got to the car, Edward held her door open as she got it.

The ride home was also pretty quiet. Alice had asked if she felt better and if she'd enjoyed the movie. She gave short yeses to both. She wasn't in the mood for distracting small talk anymore. The only thing she wanted to hear was Edward's explanation for what was going lately and he seemed unwilling to speak with his sister and brother in the car. She had figured as much.

She paid no attention to the rest of the trip home. Edward never tried to speak to her and, after being cut off so unceremoniously before, Alice spent the rest of the trip talking to Jasper. Bella couldn't even remember about what. Before she knew it, they were back in Forks pulling into her driveway.

Charlie wasn't even home yet, but he probably would be any minute now. Edward had gotten out of the car and was walking her to the door.

"Let me guess, still not a good time." She wasn't accusing him. Her tone was soft, almost sad.

"Won't your father be home soon, should he see us here?"

He was right, of course. She sighed. "I know."

"I'll find a time. Soon. I really do promise." His eyes met hers and she could not doubt the sincerity in them.

"I believe you."

He went to turn but stopped himself. He was anxious again. "Do me a favor, if you wouldn't mind."

She was confused. "Sure, what is it?"

He half-smiled. "Tomorrow, at the beach, try to stay out of trouble. And," he struggled for a brief moment, "if anything else happens to your shoulder… or anything else strange in general, will you call me?"

She didn't know how to respond.

"My father will be with me, the doctor, remember?"

"Oh yeah. Sure, no problem. But I'm sure it will be okay. You really shouldn't worry about it as much as you do."

Without a word, he smiled, touched her cheek again and turned to go back to the car. The Volvo was barely out of sight when Charlie's police cruiser pulled in. Bella was still on the porch.

"Are you just getting home, kid?"

"Yeah, I was hanging out with," she remembered her note, "Alice Cullen. We were going to go to a movie in Port Angeles but we changed our minds and went to the library to work on some homework instead." That should cover the bases, she thought.

"Alice Cullen? Really? Well that's great. I hope you kids had fun." He seemed genuinely pleased as they entered the house together.

"It was certainly an interesting afternoon."

Bella dressed carefully for bed that night, not wanting to irritate her shoulder any more that day. Not that it mattered. It was always worse when she was thinking about it and she definitely couldn't stop thinking about it. How could she not? Thinking about it made her think about him and she couldn't make herself think about anything else after the day she had.

For the first time, she thought about the pain itself. It burned, to be sure, but she was starting to think that maybe her self-diagnosis was wrong before. This was not muscle pain, this was something else. She noticed that the pain was spreading but was stronger in the center. She remembered the time Renee had been bitten by a spider. The actually bite mark was red and painful at first but then the infection spread out like a pink disc around the original site making that skin tender as well.

Her stomach turned at the thought.

Bugs were creepy and her skin crawled at the thought of them crawling all over her. She had never seen a spider in the house but it wouldn't surprise her if there were bugs in this tiny house close to the woods.

She also remembered watching this special once about bloodsucking insects like bedbugs that secretly hide out in your room and come out at night to feed on your blood, often leaving infections behind. She shuttered at the thought as she walked over to the mirror.

The spider bite that Renee had was red and so were the images of bloodsucking bed bug bites she saw on the Discovery Channel. She carefully turned her shoulder towards the glass as she leaned in to look for evidence of an infection. To her surprise, nothing off color popped off her porcelain skin. All she could see was a small, white bump that looked like a scar.

It was the shape of a tiny crescent.